Thursday, February 20, 2014

2014 Goals and Race Schedule

Getting ready for 2014!

2014 Rookie Pro Season Goals

#1 Win an Ironman race
#1 Go sub-9 hours at an Ironman race

There's no typo there, these goals are equally important to me. Whenever I have discussed goal setting with athletes I always push for having at least two types of goals: a time goal and a performance goal. Having placed 4th with a 9:22 at Beach to Battleship last fall these goals are certainly ambitious, but not unattainable. Last year my overall focus was not long-course racing, this year it will be. I will have either one or two Iron-distance races on my schedule (see below). If I go sub-9 at an Ironman and finish 20th I will be perfectly content. Likewise, if I go to a race with nasty conditions and can pull off an overall win with a mid- to low 9 hour, then I also would be ecstatic. Both of these goals have been on my lifetime bucket list. The sub-9 goal only became more realistic last fall. The easy thing to do here to notch a win would be to just cherry-pick one of the really small iron distance races that don't offer any prize money, but that seems rather unsportsmanlike as a professional. So I am looking at races that offer at least a grand to the winner which will ensure decent competition. How might I pull this off in 2014? Read on.

Tentative 2014 Race Schedule

31-May

Tri Shark Triathlon

14-Jun

Rockford Tri

13-Jul

Decatur Tri

27-Jul

Challenge New Albany 1/2

8/1-8/3

WIBA Evotri Training Weekend

24-Aug

Michigan Titanium 1/2 or Full

5-Oct

Border Wars 1/2

25-Oct

Beach to Battleship Full

That's my schedule as it now stands. The amount of time and effort it took to arrive at this sequence of races is appalling. First, I needed to compare the list of races I could possibly afford to travel to against our family calendar. Then I needed to make sure that the sequence of races would build me up over the course of the season to peak for my goal races in late summer and fall. I've been a huge supporter of the Rev3 races and all of their midwest venues. Unfortunately for me they pulled the pro field out of the Dells race and Cedar Point hasn't had a pro field in a few years. Rev3 Branson was a stellar venue, but it is now gone completely.

I really, really, wanted to race the new Challenge Atlantic City full in midsummer, but had conflicts with that one. As a pro, I have the option of paying $800 for a yearly pass that would allow me to race as many WTC events as I wanted, but a good part of the motivation for going pro was to reduce the financial burden racing puts on our family. I love the tough competition of WTC events, but it is highly unlikely that I would bring in any prize money doing their events. This season, I am targeting a number of independent events that are very-well run, have decent prize money and small pro fields. Hitting the WTC circuit may be my 2015 strategy.....